Richard Branson credits Margaret Thatcher's policies with his success

SIR Richard Branson freely admits Margaret Thatcher made him the billionaire he is today. Without her privatisation programme "I would never have been able to set up Virgin Atlantic or many of my other companies", he says.

SIR Richard Branson freely admits Margaret Thatcher made him the billionaire he is today. Without her privatisation programme "I would never have been able to set up Virgin Atlantic or many of my other companies", he says.

"She laid the ground for entrepreneurs like me to get going and help transform the rail network and British aviation. She appreciated what I was doing. We would not have flown from Heathrow were it not for Mrs Thatcher believing in competition and opening it up."

The launch of Virgin Atlantic was the transforming event in the Virgin story, taking what had been a modest music business on to the international stage.

Like Maggie herself, Branson was an iconic figure of the Eighties, his informal rock 'n' roll style a counterpoint to her severe public persona.

But, with his Sixties upbringing, he makes an unlikely champion. "On social matters, she was not necessarily my cup of tea," he says. "But she realised that you can't deal with social problems if the economic side is not working. Getting the economy going was the first step to getting the social side sorted."

Branson is reluctant to criticise, but concedes: "She was not a great listener." But his links to Thatcher were clearly more than a matter of business convenience and even after she left office he had tea with her a few times, though had not seen her since she became ill.

"She was one of Britain's great leaders and will be remembered for that. It was a privilege spending time with her. She will be very important in the history books."

Branson is also likely to feature, but at 62 he is still looking forward and has expansion plans for his airline, rail business and bank. He also hopes to launch commercial space flights within a few months.

With more than 400 companies worldwide in the Virgin Group, Branson is showing no sign that his entrepreneurial zeal is dimming, nor his appetite for publicity.

Branson, who is the fourth-richest UK citizen and said to be worth £3.4 billion, marked the inaugural Virgin Atlantic flight to Edinburgh last week by coming off the plane in a kilt.

In one of his less tasteful stunts – but to the photographers' glee – he lifted it to reveal a message on his white shorts declaring "stiff competition", in reference to British Airways, his main rival on the route.

Still wearing the kilt for an interview hours later, Branson admits that Virgin Atlantic is set to lose up to £135 million this year. The main aim of the new routes is to drag the airline back into the black.

Branson also wanted to fly to Glasgow but there was a shortage of landing slots. "It's absolutely bonkers and it makes me angry," he says. "We could have achieved so much more in this country, creating a massive number of jobs."

The problem can be resolved only by the Government taking "tough decisions to build another runway or two at Heathrow. That would give a huge boost to the economy". But he moves on quickly to areas where his group can expand without such restrictions, such as Virgin Money.The bank, which bought part of Northern Rock in 2011, has 4.5 million customers. The next step is to offer current accounts. "We will be doing that this year or maybe early next year, but it will definitely happen," he says.

Branson is interested in buying about 300 bank branches from Royal Bank of Scotland. "We've had discussions already," he says.

He is also keen to talk about railways. Virgin has been awarded the West Coast Main Line franchise until April 2017 after the controversial auction last year in which the route was awarded to rival FirstGroup before a late U-turn by the Coalition saw it returned to Virgin.

And he is still interested in the East Coast line, but after the West Coast fiasco he says he would bid only "if the rules of engagement are reasonable. The frustrating thing is that we could be investing enormous amounts of money in rail".

Asked about recent scandals over multinationals avoiding paying tax, Branson says: "You should pay tax in the country where you make the money."

But he adds: "Most companies have lawyers who try to save them tax and it's up to the Government to close any loopholes."

He defends the decision to move Virgin Enterprises, which sells the rights to the Virgin brand, to Switzerland, potentially avoiding millions of pounds in tax. "The company was set up that way because 90 per cent of the companies we are setting up at the moment are overseas companies," he says.

But Branson is soon off again and talking passionately about new projects. "The most ridiculously exciting thing that is about to happen is Virgin Galactic," he says referring to his plan to take tourists into space.

"In two weeks we go for the first powered flight by our new spaceship in the Mojave desert, not into space but maybe breaking the sound barrier," he says. "Then within months we"ll be going into space and we'll be up and away."

Branson says he wants to be on the first Virgin flight into space. His feisty 88-year-old mother, Eve, wants to go up in the mothership named after her to wave off the first passengers. But will Branson allow her? "It's up to her," he says. "I've got no choice in these things."

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